Sock Bunny - Free Tutorial

Spring is in the air! ... Well, some days it is. Some days it still feels like winter. But I stray from my point. ...

It's close enough to Spring that the lawn needs mowing! (How's that?) With Spring comes Easter and sweet little Easter Bunnies running around out in the yard hiding eggs for the young'uns to find.

I have been wanting to see what I could come up with in the way of a sock bunny for some time now and figured this would be the perfect time of year to share a free tutorial on making one.

I started with some socks I picked up a year ago and hadn't yet had a project for. They were green and brown with the "recycle" symbol on them. They were interesting and different from others I've seen so I kept them around to wait their turn to inspire me. It was these socks that I started with.

This is Lloyd, the Recycle Bunny. He is actually my second attempt at making a sock bunny. I'm too embarrassed to even post a pic of my first attempt, so anyway, poor Lloyd gets no mate. (Get it? Mate? You know, mate of a single sock as opposed to mate like a buddy or the love of his life. You know, I have to explain my little jokes a lot. You'd think someone who has to explain their attempts at humor would just give up, but not me, no, persistence, that's what I'm all about. And again, I stray ...)

Then when I was folding laundry (socks) the other day I thought how cute it would be to make a teeny one out of a baby sock. I went out the next day and found these sweet infant socks and made them into little sock bunnies too.

I call them Pinky and Pearl.

The size of the sock really makes a difference on how long their ears turned out. Lloyd has long floppy ears while Pinky and Pearl have cutesy little ears that stand up.

The two bunnies made from infant socks are small enough to fit into one of those plastic prize eggs - not the standard size, but one size up. The bunny made from an adult sock is about as big as my hand and a much better size for an Easter basket.

So there you have it. My Sock Bunny experience. Below is the free tutorial so you can make some up for your Spring activities. Just save this pic to your computer or print it out and you're on your way!

I'd love for you to make as many sock bunnies as you like for yourself or to give as gifts, but please do not make them and sell them or sell the pattern or any part of the pattern. Thank you!

Baby's Pet Pals

While pregnant with my little girl, I decided that I wanted to make her something that she could play with and drool on that was just a special little something from Mom for her. What I came up with were these little critters.

I really enjoy coming up with new patterns and I knew I wanted this one to have a variety of looks all in one, so I drew up a basic body and head shape that seemed to work for a bear, a bunny, a cat and a dog. I changed the ears on each, and voila, I had 4 different patterns in one! I even gave them embroidered tails on their bums.

When my son was little, I learned my lesson about having to constantly bend down to retrieve toys, so I liked the idea of being able to use ring links to attach them to whatever apparatus my baby might happen to be occupying at the time. I was going to make arms and legs out of looped ribbon, but found that the bottom on these dolls is just too narrow for the legs to look right. I opted to have arms only and I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.

They range from 5" to 6" tall and are just right for her little hands to hold onto. The pink bunny is my favorite, so of course that's the one I kept to give to my sweet little girl.

I listed the others on my etsy shop and have had good feedback on them from other mothers who bought them. I also wrote-up the pattern, Baby's Pet Pals, and have it available (http://www.fun4me.etsy.com/) so you can make them for your little lovie!

These were super easy to make and I did get a little carried away, but now I know what I'm giving as a gift at the next baby shower I go to!

My Little Mouse - Free Pattern and Tutorial

Here's my first free pattern to download. The pattern is for making these cute little mice. It's called "My Little Mouse". Clever, huh? (They're about 4.5" tall - including their ears.)

I wanted to make something to share that is quick and easy to whip up, but still has a bit of charm. These guys are what I came up with. I hope you like them.

Here's what you need to do to get the pattern: 1. Click on one of the below pics to have it display larger; 2. Save it to your computer; 3. Print the picture to full size, which is 11" wide by 8.5" tall; 4. Repeat with the second pic; 5. Have fun making your own Little Mouse!


Enjoy!

The Ones Who Have No Face

I had this brilliant idea to make a plush with more of an abstract look to it. You know, thinking outside the box a bit. Well, in this vein, I made the two following bunny patterns.

The first of my bunnies with no face is my Doodle Bunny Pattern. This was my first "abstract" creation. I LOVE the look of this one.

She has long, curved ears and a big round tail. I thought, "A-ha! If I don't give it any arms or legs it will be easier, right?" Alas, I was still enamored by the look of doing the curved seams and having the back "fur" fabric come around as slivers to cut into the front patterned cotton fabric. But, as with my sweet Moopsie, it was too difficult for my experience level of the time.

So, I was back to the drawing board.

This is the final version of my Doodle Bunny pattern . It still has the same feel to it, but is a simpler design.

Thinking back on it, they were fun to design and fun to make, but that was when I decided that having all those curved seams was definitely not the way to go for me - regardless of how much I liked the way they looked.

The second of my bunnies without a face is my Love Bunny pattern. It's similar to the Moopsie in that the front fabric is cotton and the back fabric is "fur". Ahh, and also I shouldn't forget the nubby arms. While in the drawing stages, I tried a couple of other types of arms, but never found anything quite right. So, here he is with lots of love to give and little nubs to give hugs.

I did bust out of my norm a bit and give this guy some big bunny feet - which, I was quite impressed with myself about at the time.

I didn't design any curved seams on this one, but I tried to give him the same type of curvy body that I had done with my previous couple of patterns. He turned out pretty much as I'd had him pictured, but for some reason, those nubby arms still nag at me today.

Both of these patterns were "one hit wonders" for me so the written patterns don't have step-by-step photos to go along with them, but are still descriptive enough to give someone the directions needed to make their own. They are available at my etsy shop if you'd like to try them out for yourself: http://www.fun4me.etsy.com/.

So there they are. ... The ones who have no face. They both happen to be bunnies, but I'm convinced that was just coincidence. :)